Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-05-14
tCoNTINUED.)
CHAPTER VII.
LOVES YOUNG DREAM.

| room Her 81 ter had undressed and was sit
| ting on her bed wrapped in blue dressing
gown that suited her fair complexion ad-
mirably, and with very Responding ex-
preston on her beautiful face Bessie was
one of those people who are easily elated and
easily cast down.
jess came up TO her and kissid her.
'What is il, lovei" she said Her sister
would never have OWNED the gnawing anx-
iety that WINS eating at her heart as she said it.
"Oh, Jess, I'm so glad that YOU have come
do so want you to advise HE; that is, to tell
me what you think, and she paused
"Hou must tell me what it is all about first,
| Bessie dear. she said, sitting down opposite
10 her in such position that her face was
shaded from the light Bessie tapped her
naked foot against the mating with WHICH
the little room was carpeted. 1t was an ex-
ceedingly pretty foot,
"Well, dear old girl. it is Just this-Frank
Muller has been here 10 ask me TO marry
him"
"Oh,' said jess, with sigh of relief, so
that was aIlf' She felt as though ton
weight had been lifted from her heart. She
had expected that bit OF news for some time
He wanted me to marry him, and when
said would not he behaved like like
Like Boer, suggested jess.
Like "a Brute went on Bessie, with em
phasiS.
$50 You don't like Frank Muller!"
Like him! | loathe the man You don't
know how | loathe him, with his handsome,
bad face and his cruel eyes. | always loathed
him, and now | hate him, too But | will
tell You all about it; and she did, with many
feminine comments and interpretations
jess -at quite still and waited till she had
finished
We'll, dear" she said, at last, you are not
going to marry him, aud so there is an end of
it. You can't detest the man more than do
| have watched him for years." she went on,
with rising anger, land tell you that Frank
Muller is liar and a traitor That man
would betray his own father if he thought it
to bis own interest TO dose. He hates uncle
l am sure he does, although he 1tetends to
be so fond of him | am sure that he has
tried often and often to stir up the Beers
against him, Old Hans Coetzee told me that
he denounced him TO the Weld Cornet as an
'ultlander and a Verdomde Engelsmann'
about two years before the annexation, and
tried to get him to persuade the Landdrost to
report him as law breaker to the Rad
while all the time he was pretending to be 50
friendly, Then in the Sikukuni war it was
Frank Muller who caused them to commander
unce's two best wagons and the spans. He
gave none himself, nothing but a couple
OF bags of meal He is a wicked fellow.
Bessie, and dangerous fehsw; but he has
More brains and more power about him than
to I've very careful, or he will do Us all bad
turn"
"Ah!' said Bessie, well, he can't do much
now that the country is English
81 am not SO sure of that am not so
sure that the country is going to stop
English. You laugh at ne for reading the
home papers, but | see things there that
make HE doubtful The other people are iii
power now in England, and one does not
know what they may do; you heard what
uncle said tonight They might give us up
70 the Beers. You must remember that we
far away people are only the counters with
which they play their game
NONSENSE, jess said Bessie Indignantly.
''Englishmen are not like that. When they
say thing they stick to it."
~They used to, you mean" answered jess
with shrug, and got up from her chair to go
to bed
Bessie began to fidget her white feet over
one another.
"Stop bit, jess DEAR she said a want to
speak to you about something else"
jess sat, or rather dropped, back into her
chair, and her pale face turned paler than
ever, but Bessie bluShed rosy red and hest
tated
at is about Capt. Mel" she said at length
"Uh, answered jess with little laugh, and
her voice sounded strange and cold in her
own ears Has he been following Frank
Muller's example and proposing to you, tooF
moo" said Bessie "but'-and here she
rose, and, sitting on stool by her elder sis
ter's chair, rested her forehead against her
knee-"but love him and | believe that he
loves NE. THIS morning he told me that
was the prettieSt woman he had seen at home
or abroad, and the sweetest, too; and do you
know" she said, looking up and giving
happy little laugh, 81 think he meant it, too :"
Are You joking, Bessie, or are you really
iii earnesst;'
sin earnestl ali, but that am and | am
not ashamed to say it. | fell in love with
JOHN Mel Nneil nt Killed Jfab cock OSIrlc1.
He looked SO strong and savage as he fought
with it. 1t is fine thing to see a man put
out all his strength. And then he is such
gentlemaR!so different from the men we
see round here. Oh, yes, fell in love with
him at once. and | have got deeper and
deeper in love with him ever since. and if he
does not marry me think that it will break
my heart. There, that's the truth, jess
dear, and she dropped her golden head on to
her sisters knees, and she began to cry,
softly, at the thought
And the sister sat there on the chair, her
hand hanging idly by her side, her white
face set and impassive as that of an Egyptian
sphinx, and the large eyes gazing far away
through the window, against which the rain
was beatinG-far away out into the night
aud the storm She heard the surging of the
storm, she heard her sisters weeping, her
eyes perceived the dark square of the window
through which they appeared to look she could
feel Bessie's head upon her knees-yes, she
could see aud hear and feel. and vet it seemed
to her that she was dead. The lightning had
fallen on her SOU as it fell on the pillar of
go